It was a normal day. The bright sun was slightly obscured by a few clouds, and the atmosphere was all around pleasant. It was a normal walk in the woods. A few birds sang their songs, and every now and again a few squirrels would dart to different trees. It was a normal me. I wasn't really paying attention to the woods around me, and I was thinking of what kinds of fantasy worlds could truly be real. It was all so completely normal that it seemed impossible for something abnormal to happen.

Yet it did.

As I was walking and minding my own business, a silver blur just rushed right by and grabbed me by the scruff of my collar. I didn't even notice what'd happened until I was sitting behind some bushes, staring straight into the face of a beautiful girl. She looked about fifteen -- my age. I blushed slightly at how close we were and was about to say something when she put one of her fingers to my lips in a motion to be silent. She peered through the bushes, her eyes searching for something vitally important to her.

There was something odd about this girl. Actually, there were many things odd about her. For one thing, she had waist-length silver hair. It wasn't the grey hair of age, it was just... silver. As if she dyed it or something. For another thing, she had piercing yellow eyes. She had fangs and claws as well, not to mention pointed ears.

Even her clothes were otherwordly: she wore some sort of short-sleeved silk dress that ended a little above her knees. It shimmered oddly with some unseen light. She wore pants underneath the dress that shimmered in the same way. The odd thing was that they way they shimmered, they blended in with our surroundings.

Her whole demeanor screamed out fantasy world.

She was just what I was looking for.

I was about to ask her what her name was, but at that moment I saw something move onto the path we'd just been on. The girl next to me held her breath suddenly, and I could see fear in her eyes. What we saw was a guy who looked around eighteen. He, like the girl, had pointed ears, fangs, and claws. In fact, the two of them looked very much alike, but with a few major differences. The girl seemed to be pure and good, but the guy seemed to be the opposite. He had shoulder-length jet-black hair. He wore an all black outfit; a short-sleeved black shirt and black pants. What was most noticeable, though, were his eyes.

They were blood red.

He looked around for a few minutes as if he was searching for something. He sniffed -- yes, sniffed -- a bit, and then his eyes settled on our hiding spot. When our eyes met, my blood ran cold. I suddenly felt like I couldn't move. My entire body was rooted to one spot. I wanted to scream out, but somehow, I couldn't. I could only stare into those emotionless red eyes and feel afraid. I don't even remember passing out.

I do remember waking up, though. The first thing I saw was the girl. She was looking at me with a worried expression, but upon seeing that I was awake and okay, she smiled in relief. In her hands was a damp cloth that she'd obviously been using to mop my forehead. "I'm glad you are unharmed," she said. Her voice sounded a lot like a dove's sweet trilling. Or was I just love-struck?

Perhaps I should take this time to tell you a bit about myself. My entire life has been spent reading fantasy books and wishing such worlds were real. I've always wanted to live in a different dimension with dragons and magic and all the other fantasy elements you always read about. I was a daydreamer, and there was nothing I could do about it. I always knew, though, that fantasy was never actually real. It was all just things that people made up. Even though I wished every day that I would get caught up in a grand adventure, I always knew that I wouldn't. That's why I was so surprised to see this girl.

"W-Who are you?" I stammered after a few minutes of gawking. I sat up and took a few deep breaths to try and calm myself, automatically smoothing my short brown hair back as I did so. I looked around and saw that we were in a small, plain hut of some kind. There was a gap in the wood to my right that served as some sort of doorway. A curtain of beads covered it. Sunlight streamed in through the beads, so I could tell it was still day.

"I am called Aria," she responded with a smile. "I'm not from here, as it is probably easy to tell. Please tell me who you are."

"Zak," I replied automatically. Suddenly, I was feeling a bit self conscious about myself. Here was someone who looked like a princess from some far off place, and then there was me. I just so happened to be wearing my blue jeans with the holes at the knees. My red shirt was now a dirty brown from climbing trees and falling into the dirt earlier. It probably didn't help matters any that I was one of those tall and lanky sort of guys.

"Well, Zak, you most likely have an endless number of questions for me," Aria said, her smile still there despite my appearances. "I suppose I should answer them all, so what is the first thing you would like to know?"

"You talk properly," I blurted out. It was the first thing that came to mind.

She giggled a bit. "Yes, I suppose I do," she replied. "That is because I was taught to speak in this way. I am sort of a princess, I suppose you could call me."

A princess? I thought, surprised. "What're you doing here?" I asked timidly. I felt even more self conscious about myself since I was in the prescence of royalty, and I straightened up a little. "You said you were from somewhere else, right? Where exactly? And who was that guy we saw in the woods?"

"Well, I am from a different world called Farendale," she explained. "It is a world very unlike your Earth. It is a land of men, dwarves, and elves, like me. All elves know magic, and some men do. Dwarves prefer to use their axes, but there are some healers among them. There are creatures beyond your wildest dreams. Dragons are rare, but still existant and very magnificent." In her eyes sparkled was excitement. "It is truly a wonderful place!"

"What of the guy?" I asked, curious as to why she'd avoided this question.

Her shoulders slumped a bit, and the excitement from her eyes turned to deep sorrow. "My brother, Canthor," she replied after a few minutes' hesitation. "Our world, though it is wonderful, is not perfect. There are kingdoms who oppose our own. Canthor, when he was around my age, rebelled against our parents and ran off to one of those kingdoms. We did not hear from him again until a week ago. He had become king and declared war on us."

I was speechless. How could her own brother declare war on her and their parents?! It was outrageous! I told her this, and she only gave a weak smile. "He turned evil," she replied simply. "Our magic is usually only used for good, but it seems an evil sorcerer has taught him to use it for horrible things. He takes lives with a single twist flip of his wrist, and entire armies have fallen at his feet. We need a hero." She looked at me expectantly, and after a few minutes I caught on.

"You mean... me?" I asked bleakly. I wasn't ready to be a hero, not now, not ever. "But how can I defeat someone who uses magic if I can't? It's just... impossible! No, it's more than that; it's suicide!"

"You must," she pleaded. "My parents are ill and their magic is fading. I am too weak to face my brother alone. I believe that you may have hidden powers. A very few people on Earth have the powers needed to stop him, so if you do not help, then who will? We need you, Zak!"

In her eyes was the most pitiful look I've ever seen. I couldn't say no, so I said yes to her. As soon as the word left my mouth, her eyes sparkled again with unspoken thanks. "How exactly do we get to Farendale?" I questioned, stumbling over the unfamiliar word. "We don't just get on a spaceship and fly there, do we?"

Aria laughed a little. "No, of course not!" she answered. "We get there by magic. I came here through a portal that is in the woods near where I found you. To get to Farendale, we must step through the portal. I am assuming that Canthor has already returned home to continue the war. He, fortunately, does not have the power to close the portal, so it will be there when we get there."

I took a deep breath and tried to give a smile. "Then let's go."

---

We walked through the forest for only a few minutes. The hut we'd been in was a magic trick from Aria. She'd used real wood from trees, but she chopped it up and held the hut together with magic. The beads were only an illusion so that people couldn't see in. Once we left, she let her magic fade from the hut, and it collapsed into a pile of wood.

The portal she'd been speaking of was only a small, sort of bright dot in the air. She smiled at me and touched the dot with the tip of her finger. It suddenly grew larger and larger until it was an oval about six feet at its highest point and four feet at its widest point. "This is it," she whispered to me.

I glimpsed the other side of the portal. The lands were green and mostly flat with a few rolling hills. Off in the distance there was a forest, and even further than that were mountains. The sky was a clear and peaceful blue with a few clouds splotching the sky. Even though there was all this, I hesitated.

The hesitation must've been plain on my face, for Aria took my hands in hers. "You may come back any time you wish," she told me warmly. "You will be able to see your friends and your family whenever you long for them."

Though the words were pleasant, doubts still lingered in my mind. "What will happen to everyone," I asked slowly, "if I don't ever come back? If I die over there, how will my folks know that I won't be coming back?"

"If you wish, I can erase their minds so they will not remember you and will not feel any loss," she answered. She glanced at the portal, and her look suddenly became worried. "Canthor has tampered with it! It is closing!"

I looked and saw that she was right. Slowly but surely, the portal was becoming smaller and smaller. While we'd been talking, it'd shrunken to three feet tall and two feet wide. We would still be able to go through, but it would be a squeeze. "We must go immediately!" Aria exclaimed, looking at me again. "Another portal cannot be opened from this world, so we must leave now!"

"You can still open another portal from your world, right?" I asked, wanting to make sure that Canthor's spell didn't work both ways.

She hesitated before answering. Her words were fast, for we didn't have much time. "His magic has made it so that we cannot open another portal from there, either; not, at least, until he is dead. I know this is a lot to ask of you, but we need you!"

I felt my chest tighten. My breath caught in my throat, and words escaped me. My mind kept asking what if's at the speed of light. What if I never came back? What if I died when I was over there? What if I was imprisoned and never saw my family and friends ever again? What if Canthor was never killed? What if, what if, what if?

Aria's expression turned from one of anxiousness to one of anguish. "Good bye," she whispered. She leaned in and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before turning to the portal. It was only two and a half feet tall now and a bit more than one and a half feet wide. Aria leapt in head first, rolling once on the other side so she wouldn't hurt herself. She turned back to face me, giving a small smile filled with grief.

It was then that I knew what I must do. I ran for the portal, planning to fling myself into it and be with Aria, but the portal, with one last shudder, completely disappeared. I fell hard onto the ground, and in my mind a single question repeated in my head, one that has haunted me ever since.

What would've happened if I'd gone?